"Joel’s work reminds us that we have a shared responsibility to protect these precious spaces.”
– Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg


“what I did discover was that in every park I entered, I was being drawn to the unmanaged areas: those dark invitations to get lost in the woods and margins of the parks, where pathways petered out and nature took over.”
—Joel Meyerowitz


Aperture is pleased to offer this very special portfolio of five limited-edition photographs by internationally renowned artist Joel Meyerowitz. In this stunningly beautiful collection of images, Meyerowitz invites the viewer to discover the hidden pockets of wilderness that still exist within the urban environs of New York City. This compelling body of work is the result of a unique commission Meyerowitz received from the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation to document, interpret, and celebrate one of New York City’s greatest legacies: the nearly 9,000 acres of parks in the five boroughs that have been left or returned to their most natural state. The portfolio coincides with the publication of this work in the beautiful monograph Legacy: The Preservation of Wilderness in New York City Parks and consists of five photographs, one chosen from each of the five boroughs of New York City.

Meyerowitz, who was born and raised in the Bronx in the 1940s and '50s, is a self-described urban Huckleberry Finn who refers to the Bronx River as his Mississippi. In creating this series of work, Meyerowitz has drawn upon his childhood memories of a New York with "green space—open and wild, alive with rabbits, migratory birds, snakes, frogs, and the occasional skunk... [That] gave me my first sense of the natural world, its temperament and its seasons, its unpredictability, and its mystery."

Aperture is pleased to offer this exquisite portfolio limited to only thirty copies containing five signed and numbered photographs and a specially handmade paper crafted colophon made from plant materials collected from the various parks within the five boroughs, to our collecting audience. A major exhibition of this work will be shown in October 2009 at the Museum of the City of New York.


JOEL MEYEROWITZ (born in New York, 1938) is an award-winning photographer whose work has appeared in over 350 international exhibitions. He is a two-time Guggenheim fellow, a recipient of both NEA and NEH awards, as well as a recipient of the Deutscher Fotobuchpreis. He has published over fifteen books, including Cape Light (1978) and Aftermath: The World Trade Center Archive (2006). He lives in New York and is represented by Edwynn Houk Gallery